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Went to a new (for me) Indian place, the Bay Leaf, in BR last night. We called for directions. It’s on S. Sherwood Forest near Coursey. The guy’s directions were that “it is vertical from the Golden Corral”. We were thinking the restaurant was ensconced in some kind of hovering flying saucer powered by a massive tandoor engine. Nothing like talk of UFO’s to draw the crowds in Big BR - marketing geniuses, those Indians! Turns out “vertical” is Hindenglish for “across the street”. The Bay Leaf is an attractive, large, white tablecloth place that had a number of Indians dining there. There’s a full bar. We had a mixed appetizer platter to start, which was pretty good, but some of the items weren’t as crisp as I would have liked. DC#1 got the tandoori mixed grill, which was quite good, tasty moist meats and seafood with nothing nuked to death. DC#2 got the chicken shahi korma and was well-pleased with it. My brother had the lamb chops, which were pretty good. I think he would actually have liked a curry better, but it is hard to get him to try exotic cuisines so I didn’t argue the point. At least he didn’t ask the waiter where the monkey kebabs were on the menu. I had lamb peksana (sp?), which was lamb in a sweet curry with saffron and almonds. They also have a number of South Indian items on the menu. Service was very good. There is a lunch buffet. The website says this place is related to the old India Palace in NOLA, but I couldn’t taste any commonalities. DC’s 1 & 2, who eat Indian only rarely, thought it was good enough for a return visit and better than India’s out by the OLOL hospital on Essen. I agreed. Not worth a journey, but if you’re in BR and want something offbeat, I’d say they’re worth trying. Just look for the greenish glow in the sky and follow the laser beams.


http://www.bayleafbr.com

I did read about Bay Leaf & also saw that they were formerly India Palace.

We actually make trips to BR to go to India's!
So if you think it is better than India's, I feel like I'll be eating at Bay Leaf soon!

Tell me, I used to get an entree called Shahi Murgh at Taj Mahal, it was one of my favorites. After Mr. K made his transition, this dish just wasn't the same.
So I stopped ordering it. Do you recall this dish? Any comparison or similarities to the one that sounds similar at Bay Leaf?
Sometimes it had a more korma sauce & other times more kashmiri. Think it was a merger of these to sauces that ended up being the sauce on the shahi murgh.
It was stuffed boneless chicken with fruit, nuts, hard cooked egg & spices inside. Tell me what you think!

Speaking of Indian....I STILL haven't made it to Tarka....but a fellow board member on another board I belong to has been and posted a review. It was medicre. I really want some great indian!

nikinik wrote:Speaking of Indian....I STILL haven't made it to Tarka....but a fellow board member on another board I belong to has been and posted a review. It was medicre. I really want some great indian!

I have been considering going to Tarka for lunch. Can you post a link to your fellow poster's review?

BTW, I found it amusing that their sign says Indian and Pakastani food. Considering their continuous conflict over the Kashmir region I just found it ironic to see both names together. Makes me wonder if the owners are really Indian.

Here's what he said....

I went today and w/ the $25 restaurant.com coupon and decided to try a large sampling of what they had to offer.

I got:

Chicken Myhrani (i think)
Chicken Korma
Palaak Paneer
Tandori Combo
Regular Naan

The best thing was the Chicken Myhrani or whatever it was spelled. (1st chicken dish on the menu). It was like butter/tikka masala dish and had nice flavor. They may have needed more coconut milk/yogurt to thin the sauce though.
The chicken korma was NOT chicken korma. I've had several varieties of chicken korma and it did not taste like any I've had. I was disappointed but it was ok.

The Palak Paneer was a lil bland and the cheese was kinda chewy but it was ok.

The tandori combo was dry.

The naan was good.

I thought the food was below India's Restaurant quality and gave you less food for your $. I wouldnt recommend it.

Isabella Maja wrote:
Tell me, I used to get an entree called Shahi Murgh at Taj Mahal, it was one of my favorites. After Mr. K made his transition, this dish just wasn't the same.
So I stopped ordering it. Do you recall this dish? Any comparison or similarities to the one that sounds similar at Bay Leaf?
Sometimes it had a more korma sauce & other times more kashmiri. Think it was a merger of these to sauces that ended up being the sauce on the shahi murgh.
It was stuffed boneless chicken with fruit, nuts, hard cooked egg & spices inside. Tell me what you think!

I like India's, but have mainly been there for the lunch buffet. The one time we went in the evening, it was really not impressive. It's been a couple of years so I don't recall the details, but the food was lackluster and the service not good. Almost like it was two different restaurants.

I did not/do not frequent Taj Mahal so I'm not familiar with the dish you mentioned. Doesn't sound like anything we had.

Gourmondo wrote:I like India's, but have mainly been there for the lunch buffet. The one time we went in the evening, it was really not impressive. It's been a couple of years so I don't recall the details, but the food was lackluster and the service not good. Almost like it was two different restaurants.

I did not/do not frequent Taj Mahal so I'm not familiar with the dish you mentioned. Doesn't sound like anything we had.

I've been to India's for the lunch buffet as well as dinner at night.
Both have been very good. Service sucks no matter what.

I don't recall ever having good service in any Indian restaurant in any city, except when Judd, a tall, bald N.O. Yat that we all knew & loved worked at Taj Mahal (& previous incarnations).
I think it could be a cultural thing. And that's ok.
As long as the food is great & it's relatively clean, I'll be going back.

---------- Post added at 05:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:17 PM ----------

nikinik wrote:Here's what he said....

I went today and w/ the $25 restaurant.com coupon and decided to try a large sampling of what they had to offer.

I got:

Chicken Myhrani (i think)
Chicken Korma
Palaak Paneer
Tandori Combo
Regular Naan

The best thing was the Chicken Myhrani or whatever it was spelled. (1st chicken dish on the menu). It was like butter/tikka masala dish and had nice flavor. They may have needed more coconut milk/yogurt to thin the sauce though.
The chicken korma was NOT chicken korma. I've had several varieties of chicken korma and it did not taste like any I've had. I was disappointed but it was ok.

The Palak Paneer was a lil bland and the cheese was kinda chewy but it was ok.

The tandori combo was dry.

The naan was good.

I thought the food was below India's Restaurant quality and gave you less food for your $. I wouldnt recommend it.

Nik, thanks for the Tarka review. Doesn't exactly make me want to run there, but not knowing who the reviewer is, well, I have to take that into consideration to be fair. However, I'm not going anytime soon! Sounds like my Indian food at home is way better.